In the United States, domain extensions cannot be registered as trademarks. That hasn’t stopped some gTLD applicants in other countries in order to gain an upper hand over competitors, however. One notable example is Constantine Roussos, who has filed some 20 trademarks in hopes of preventing anyone else but him from applying for the .music gTLD:
Rest assured that if we, as .MUSIC are faced with the possibility of being gamed and abused in a manner that we find illegal, we will use our trademarks and other means necessary to do what we have to do to protect ourselves and our respective community.
People like Roussos think are they entitled to own a gTLD simply because they thought of it first. As far as I’m concerned, everyone should have an equal chance to operate any extension. If someone can do a better job of running .music than Roussos, let the guy have it.
Photo | Flickr